Arizona Diamondbacks 2024 Player Review: Pavin Smith

The lefty first baseman's breakout campaign leaves him in a potentially critical role entering 2025.

Sep 8, 2024; Houston, Texas, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks first baseman Pavin Smith (26) on the field during the ninth inning against the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-Imagn Images / Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

This article is part of a series chronicling the individual seasons of players who appeared for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2024.

Reviews for players who still have rookie eligibility for 2025 will appear in our prospect season reviews. Players are presented in the reverse order of their aWAR, an average of Baseball Reference and FanGraphs WAR.

Pavin Smith, 1B/OF, Age: 28

2024 Contract Status: Pre-Arb, $509K Prorated from $740K League Minimum

Pavin Smith 2024 and Career Stats / Aaron Hughes

Pavin Smith has come a long way since his original drafting by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 1st round of the 2017 draft. He was picked 7th overall, and along with that came monumental expectations.

Smith hasn't lived up to that bar by any means to this point in his career, but he's certainly has an interesting path to get to where he was entering 2024. Then things seemed to take a turn, and where things stand today, he may have finally taken a step into the spotlight.

His status as a heavily bat oriented player, who finds himself playing corner outfield and first base exclusively, kept Smith in the minor leagues to start the season. His season debut came on April 19th in San Fransisco.

Going into the year the lefty batter had a career OPS+ of 91, clocking in at 9% below league average. Between that April 19th debut, however, until he was optioned down to Reno once more, Pavin Smith totaled a .268 batting average, with a solid .829 OPS.

These numbers were solid, but were not enough to force his way onto the roster. With a logjam in the outfield, and Christian Walker holding the fort at first base, Smith would primarily patrol the field in Reno until his ascent back to the big leagues on August 19th.

This callup seemed to change things in a big way for Smith. His approach at the plate always found him at bats, and this would be his key going forward.

"I’m where I’m supposed to be"

- Pavin Smith

Smith took off after his callup, seemingly making an impact every time he stepped into the batters box. His stats backed this tremendously.

In a 31 game sample size his On Base Percentage soared to .378, helped in large part to a fantastic 15.6% walk rate in that span. Smith's slugging percentage also reached .595, with 12 of his 20 hits going for extra bases, and 6 of those leaving the yard.

Things were truly clicking in Pavin Smith's bat and it was not a fluke. In 2024 He had a babip of .280, only .010 points higher than his .270 battings average leaving little projection of regression.

Smith's season peaked with a magical three homer game in Houston, including a grand slam, announcing himself on the national stage, and proving himself deserving of his roster spot. His season finished with a 145 OPS+, up 55 points above his career mark to that point.

2025 Outlook

Pavin Smith's future role with the Diamondbacks has become much more critical moving into the 2025 season. Christian Walker, and Josh Bell are Free Agents, with the former demanding a large price tag connected with a potential return.

Smith is eligible for salary arbitration for the first time. He is estimated to earn approximately $1.6 million in 2025 according our Diamondbacks payroll projections.

Smith can play first base, and its almost certain that he will see regular reps at the big league level next season. He has played himself into a job, and his performance in 2024 will have an impact in the teams dealings this off-season.

Smith is rated as a below average defender in total, but most of those negative numbers have come while playing the outfield. Playing first base, however, he is rated as exactly zero runs above average for his career (613 innings) by both Baseball Reference's DRS and Statcast's OAA.

Those defensive numbers don't compare to Christian Walker's incredible 10 Fielding Run Value and National League Leading 13 Outs Above Average.

Pavin Smith had an incredible 2024 season which proved that he has the talent at a major league level that the Diamondbacks dreamed upon 7 years ago when they drafted him. Now he will get a chance to back his breakout season up in a full years campaign in 2025.

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